Classical > Bavarian Radio Chorus Classical

A Memorable Portrait of Vesselina Kasarova

Advantages: Kasarova's personal touch. Virtuosic without showing off
Disadvantages: She doesn't keep singing forever

...sung by the Bulgarian mezzo Vesselina Kasarova, and beautifully accompanied by maestro Friedrich Haider and the Munich Radio Orchestra/ Chorus of the Bavarian Radio. Vesselina Kasarova is known for her multi-coloured deep and melancholy voice (a very distinctly identifiable one at that!) and her interpretative intensity. Every note that she sings is a part of the story she is telling. Her florid coloratura (virtuoso decoration of the main melodic ...
...is a dream singer for anyone who likes drama and theatrically involved singing..... and she doesn't compromize any legato line to achieve it. Like her idol, WA Mozart, this gal can operate within the boundary while generating a singing experience that transcends it. The tracks included are: 1. HANDEL: Rinaldo: Or la tromba in suon festante 2. GLUCK: Orfeo ed Euridice: Che faro senza Euridice 3. MOZART: Le nozze di Figaro: Voi che sapete che cosa ...

EpinionSmorg 14.04.2007 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Vesselina Kasarova: Famous Mezzo Arias

Favorite of the Bel Canto Opera Fans

Advantages: In original French! Kasarova, Vargas, Furmansky
Disadvantages: They don't pronounce French well. A bit under-rehearsed

La Favorite is one of 3 French grand opera written by the bel canto master Gaetano Donizetti (though it is often performed in Italian under the title 'La Favorita'). The story is based on Royer's and Vaez's play 'L'Ange de Nisida'. SYNOPSIS: The novice monk Fernand is dismissed from the monastery in Castile by his prior Balthazar due to his attraction to an unknown beauty whose hand he had touched during a service. Fernand takes off to Leon, where ...
...service of Leonor de Guzman, the mistress of King Alphonse XI, who turns out to be the unknown beauty he met in Castile). Having mistaken her for a royalty, Fernand joins the army vowing to earn glory in battle deserving of her attention. After showing his valor in a victorious battle with the Moors, Fernand is praised by the happy Alphonse. However, their happy hours is cut short when the is threatened excommunication by Balthazar on direct order ...

EpinionSmorg 16.04.2007 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Donizetti: La Favorite

Sumptuous works by a little-known composer

Advantages: Good recordings of unfamiliar, but rewarding works
Disadvantages: None

Karlowicz is a relatively unknown composer whose chief claim to fame was his untimely death in a skiing accident just before the First World War. He left a small collection of works, the later of which (figured in this disc) show a talent that was tragically snuffed out before he could achieve greatness. The Symphonic Poems featured here reveal a composer adept at interesting orchestral effects (try the sad theme at the start of the Lithuanian Rhapsody, ...
...writing for the lower-toned instruments of the orchestra. Karlowicz has clearly learnt a lot from Richard Strauss, whose shadow fell across much pre-1914 music, but it often lacks the extrovert quality of the Gernman composer's tone poems; as the inlay notes say, there is a 'brooding' quality to much of this music, particularly evident in the middle sections of these works. Another feature of Karlowicz's writing is his tendency to pick himself up ...

chivhu 15.09.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Karlowicz: Symphonic Poems Vol 1

Music for Meditation

Advantages: A good introduction to sacred music
Disadvantages: A rather niche album on which those into the genre will find nothing new

...the same. Requiem is subtitled "music for Reflection and Meditation". It takes various well known settings of the requiem mass, together with a couple of other fitting pieces and puts them together in one place. If one is so minded, one should note that this album is NOT a requiem mass. The pieces don't follow in the right order but, having said that, to the knowledgeable, the whole album stands on its own as a good religious set. One of the other ...
...who are less well-known. When one says "requiem" one might think of Verdi or Mozart but here we also have offerings from Spanish composer Lobo (a motet) and the Italian Pergolesi (an extract from his Sabat Mater). I feel that Naxos have really got it right with this compilation. The perfect balance between the known and the unknown is struck with excerpts from the more well known Requiems by Mozart and Verdi featuring more than once meaning ...

CareBear 15.09.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Requiem - Classical Music for Reflection & Meditation

Remembering ABBA's Classic Songs

Advantages: Contains super hit tracks
Disadvantages: None

The ABBA Agnetha Falskog vocals Benny Anderson vocals, keyboards, synthesizer Bjorn Ulvaeus vocals, banjo, guitar Anni-Frid Lyngstad vocals Full Tracks Listing 1. Dancing Queen 2. Knowing Me, Knowing You 3. Take A Chance On Me 4. Mamma Mia 5. Lay All Your Love On Me 6. Super Trooper 7. I Have A Dream 8. The Winner Takes It All 9. Money, Money, Money 10. S.O.S. 11. Chiquitita 12. Fernando 13. Voulez Vous ...
...Your Mother Know 16. One Of Us 17. The Name Of The Game 18. Thank You For The Music 19. Waterloo About each track (This contains year of recording and running time of each track. I personally like to read some few lines of each track when I read music reviews to help me familiarized with the song, so I added some lines of each track.) Dancing Queen (1976) 3:51 You are the dancing queen Young and sweet, only seventeen This track has ...

browndoll 25.08.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of (The) Greatest Hits of Abba